Hi everybody, it’s Jenny from the MSQC. And I’ve got a fun project for you today. Let’s take a look at this quilt behind me. Isn’t this great? Such a cool layout. Such a fun block. This is our block right here. And of course there’s a million ways to lay it out. And let me tell you how to make this. So to make this quilt what you’re going to need are three different pre cuts. A 2 ½ inch strip set. And we used every single one. And we’ve used London Fog Batiks by Island Batiks. You’re going to need a 1 ½ inch strip. So these originally came on a nice roll. And you’re going to need one of those. And then I used three of this little pre cut, which is a 2 ½ inch square. And it’s double the size, so you get 84 squares in here. They’re just little 2 ½ inch squares cut up. And I used three of those. So for your outer border you’re going to need 1 ¾ yards and it’s a 6 ½ inch border. And for your backing, look at this. We took one of the prints and used it. And this print actually comes in 108 wide and we used 2 ½ yards of that. So 2 ½ yards but 108 backing. So when making this project I literally used one pack of these 2 ½ inch strips. But Island Batik strips tend to run a little bit longer so if you run out of strips you can cut it out of your border yardage. We put a little bit extra in there so you could cut some strips out of there if you need some extra strips to finish up your blocks. So let me show you how to make this.

We’re starting with a 2 ½ inch square of white and a 2 ½ inch square of color. And I’m going to show you exactly how I did this. This is how I tend to sew. And what I’m going to do here is I”m just going to cut a 2 ½ inch square out of my strip like this. And I’m going to put these together right sides and I’m going to sew corner to corner on this. So that means you can press the line or draw the line. And I’m just going to lay this across this here and draw the line. And we’re going to sew right on that line. Not either side, but right on it. Let me make sure you go corner to corner. And we’re going to sew right on top of that line. So we’ll come over here and sew that. This is all about bordering and bordering and bordering. Now sometimes, when you start this sewing, your line, this line, you’re going to draw your lines for awhile and then you’ll get so used to it you’ll start just sewing across the block. And when I do that I just want to tell you this because sometimes this happens. When I do that sometimes my blocks aren’t exactly square. So if you fold this block you can see which side actually makes the most square block because . sometimes it’s one side and sometimes the other. See this one leaves a little bit extra here so I’m going to fold it from this side. And which means I”m going to cut off the side that I think is a little bit wonky. Alright so there we go. Now we have this block done.

Every block gets bordered with an inch and a half strip. So we’re going to start right here with an inch and a half strip. And I’m just going to cut off the selvedge right here. And I tend to use my scissors for this kind of a thing because, I just do. I’m old school. So I’m going to put my strip, I’m going to sew a strip on here, cut it off and sew a strip on the other side. So we’re bordering each corner, I mean we’re bordering each little block and we’re bordering on the color. So the color always touches our background. So I’m going to bring this over here and sew around it. And we’re going to do several rows of this so this will get to make sense to you really quick. Oop, I’m a little in too far, hang on. I just veered in right there so I’m going to start over and make sure my quarter inch, you want to keep your quarter inch pretty close on this one because your, your blocks will get kind of wonky if you don’t. Alright, so there’s my block. And I’m going to use my, hopefully you can see this. I’m going to use my block as the cut mark. So actually you can just lay your ruler along the edge of the block and cut before you press it open. So I would, you know if it were me I’d have a little nest right around me with an ironing board and my cutting mat and everything right there because this is pretty iron, cut intensive. Alright so now we’ve got, we’re putting our 1 ½ inch strip on the other side. And again I just use my strip as my cut line. And you can do that with a scissor or with your rotary cutter and just trim that off. Alright now we’re going to press this open.

And now it’s time to add our first layer of color. So this is the block that we’re working on right here. And so we’ve got our little 2 ½ inch square in the center, now we’re adding, we’ve added our white now we’re adding our first row of color. And that’s a 2 ½ strip right here. So I’m just going to grab one that’s different. Now in the pattern it will tell you exactly how, what size these need to be cut but of course I just grab the strip and run with it. So I’m going to put this, the same color on both sides. So I’m going to sew down on this one right here. Just straight down, keep my quarter of an inch and then before I press it open I’m going to use that as my, my mark to cut it. And then I’m just going to finger press. Now honestly when you’re dealing with batiks, it is so, they’re so easy to finger press. They just lay back so nice. And we’re going to go down this side. Alright and again we’re going to clip. And press it open.

Now what we’re going to do, once we get around every 2 ½ inch row, we are going to sew a 2 ½ inch square on the corners. So I’m just going to press my squares real quick like this, or draw the line. Either one works. And I’m going to put a square on each side so right here. And you always want to make sure that you’re going from the outside of your strip in and from the outside in on both ones. Now this one right here, this one didn’t iron very well. My line, you want your line right in the middle corner to corner. And my line didn’t, I didn’t take good time with that one. Because your line corner to corner, that’s going to be your sew line. So again I’m putting this on and then these are going to be cut this way and sewn that way as well. So we’re going to the machine and sewing on the line. And then I’m just going to flip this around, make sure it’s still lined up on the corner and sew on the line. And remember you sew from the inside to the outside or outside to the in, whatever makes sense to your brain. Alright. Then we’re going to trim these off. This is one of those quilts when you make it, at least for me, that, that your whole sewing table gets a mess because you’ve got all the strips piled everywhere and the pieces and you’re ironing and cutting. Alright so now we have this row.

And again we’re just going to add our 1 ½ inch strip. So we’re going to go around both sides always adding to the color. And I’m just going to clip this with my scissor right here. Finger press it up and sew down the side. Alright we’re going to clip this open just like this. And I’m going to press it back. Now just like I added the color here and my cornerstones, I”m going to add color again, white, color again and don’t forget your cornerstones each time. And I’m just going to go ahead and sew that and I”ll meet you right back here.

So now I’m adding my last square and I’m sewing corner to corner remembering to sew from out to in or vice versa. And then we’re going to trim off these corners and our block will be done. So here’s our one corner here and here’s our other one. There we go. Alrighty, so then I’m just going to press these out to frame up my square, give it nice shot of steam. There we go. And look at that, our block is done.

So this is how you put the blocks together. Now the way we did this, we laid it out several different ways. This is really a creative block and fun to see in all different ways. We kind of liked, we even sashed it at one point. But kind of liked how it all came together in this center right here to make the star or the box kind of starish thing in the center like this. So like this. So let’s look at the center of the quilt. So whenever I do a quilt like this that has one center where it all comes together, I actually lay the center out first. And then I look and I see that these two come together and these two come together and I lay them up, up. And then I go out, out this way on all four sides. And then I turn these so they make sense. So you’re actually sewing these two together and these two together to make all your top, side, and bottom blocks. These corner blocks are all going the same direction. So you’ll just want to look at the diagram and follow that to be able to make your quilt.

But it makes a great quilt. It’s about 80 by 80. Really fun. Just straight border sewing. And we hope you enjoyed this tutorial from the MSQC.